The Advantages of Rewards in the Classroom

An effective behavior modification system within the classroom often includes rewards. Students are motivated to achieve and conform to appropriate behaviors when either intrinsically or extrinsically rewarded. Those students who prefer intrinsic motivation enjoy praise, personally challenging projects and accomplishing educational tasks just for the love of learning. An extrinsic approach requires more tangible rewards such as pencils, erasers, stickers and sometimes candy. The type of reward given to students must be fair and consistent for all students but also must vary for each task.

Promote Appropriate BehaviorExtending a reward to students helps to promote positive and appropriate behavior among students in your class. Following class rules, being kind to one another and keeping safety a priority are just a few of the positive behaviors to be displayed in your classroom through the gifting of rewards to the students. Through appropriate student behavior, teachers are able to concentrate on lesson content and interactive activities to indulge students in learning opposed to focusing on classroom discipline.

Motivation for Full Effort on Classroom TasksStudents often give less than full effort when attempting class projects, assignments, classwork and various tasks. Through a reward-based system, students will show interest and increased participation in everyday classroom duties and responsibilities. Motivating students to learn is part of the challenge that instructors face when teaching content and giving rewards will result in more effort on the part of the student.

Completed Homework and ProjectsReinforcing subject matter is the primary goal of assigning homework for students and without homework completion, students are not able to practice accomplishing the content of the lesson. Promote a grasp of the lesson by rewarding the students for completed projects and homework assignments both in groups and individually.

Happy StudentsSuccessful students are happy students and in order to have a classroom of happy students, teachers may use a reward system. Encourage students to be productive in learning both at home and in school by offering rewards. Rewards tend to create a feeling of pride and achievement among students thus motivating them to be more productive.

Handling classroom conflicts is a part of most teachers’ lives. Even seemingly small disputes can negatively impact the classroom environment and interfere with long-term relationships. This is why managing student…